White House Hosts Ash Wednesday Massfor Catholic Staff

The White House hosted an Ash Wednesday mass for Catholic staffers, to mark the beginning of the Lenten season.
The Mass was held in the South Auditorium of the Executive Office Building (EEOB) on Wednesday morning, according to White House sources.
Catholic White House officials attending the Mass, included Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan, and director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Dozens of White House staffers also attended and even some members of the Secret Service.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump issued a statement recognizing the penitential day.
“We join in prayer with everyone observing this holy day and wish you a prayerful Lenten journey,” he said in the statement. “May you grow closer to God in your faith during this blessed season.”
Non of the Faux Catholics in Congress asked to attend this solemn holy occasion, did they?

House Dems and Manhattan DA Cy Vance are gunning for President Trump’s financial records.
The House and Cy Vance’s office on Wednesday filed briefs with the Supreme Court seeking access to Trump’s tax records.
The Supreme Court in December agreed to hear three cases over President Trump’s financial records this year, setting up a historic legal showdown.
President Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to hear two cases involving subpoenas issued by Democrat congressional investigators seeking the President’s tax returns and financial records from his accounting firm Mazar’s USA.
One case was brought by various committees led by House Democrats.

Should white people sing black spirituals?
Western Michigan University is grappling with that question after a black student was triggered and suffered a social media meltdown when a predominantly white choir sang “Wade in the Water.”
“So apparently Western Michigan University thinks it’s ok for WHITE peoples to sing negro spirituals while the instructor talking bout ‘these songs don’t belong to one race.’ They sure as hell DO,” WMU music major Shaylee Faught wrote on a social media now seen by more than 1 million people.
Faught got triggered after the choir’s black conductor reportedly told the audience that the selections were “American songs” performed “for everyone” and “have no ethnicity.”

The White House hosted an Ash Wednesday mass for Catholic staffers, to mark the beginning of the Lenten season.
The Mass was held in the South Auditorium of the Executive Office Building (EEOB) on Wednesday morning, according to White House sources.
Catholic White House officials attending the Mass, included Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan, and director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Dozens of White House staffers also attended and even some members of the Secret Service.

When word first broke that Meghan Markle had convinced Prince Harry to divorce the royal family, it struck many as a bizarre and sad conclusion to what could have been a great chapter in the family’s long history. Then, when Meghan turned out to be greedy and entitled, while Harry was apparently a milquetoast, people turned against the duo. Now, though, with the latest report on Meghan’s extraordinarily self-centered world view, she’s becoming a comic figure who must be enjoyed.
It started with Prince Harry, who had grown from being a bit of an ass to being an active-duty soldier to being an empathetic yet sunny member of the royal family,

Following Rahm Emanuel’s maxim that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says the Trump reaction to the coronavirus is too little too late and quibbles over how much money is “enough” to fight a possible pandemic. Yet at the same time, such is cryin’ Chuck’s concern for human life that he and his Democrats sustained a filibuster blocking a bill that would protect the lives of newborn infants that survive a botched abortion.
Senate Democrats today blocked a request by Republicans to vote on a bill that would stop infanticide and provide medical care and treatment

President Trump held a press conference on Wednesday to discuss coronavirus. Although many in the assembled press wanted to play “gotcha,” Trump struck a great balance between relaxed and serious and refused to play the media’s game. It was the perfect mien to reassure a nation that, while nothing serious is happening now, our federal government will be there should the situation change.
Trump explained that Vice President Mike Pence will henceforth be the point person on the coronavirus issue. When he was Governor in Indiana, Pence dealt with MERS in 2014, so he already has executive experience in managing an infectious disease.

An Oregon man has been busted for repeatedly duping Girl Scouts, buying cookies with counterfeit money, police said.
Camden Stevens Ducharme, 36, of Salem, was arrested Sunday on charges of theft and forgery after two separate Girl Scouts troops reported getting bogus bills while hawking their iconic baked goods earlier this month, the Statesman Journal reports.
During one incident, police said Ducharme passed a counterfeit $20 to purchase a box of cookies from a Girl Scout troop outside a Walmart in Salem and received legal currency in exchange, the newspaper reports.
Tiffany Brown, of Dallas, Oregon, about 15 miles west of Salem, said she filed a police report

A Florida man set his hospital bed on fire in a desperate attempt to get a nurse’s attention, police said.
John King, 75, admitted to police to using a silver and red Bic lighter to ignite a plastic bag in a shared room at a hospital in New Smyrna Beach where he felt staffers were ignoring his request to bring him his clothes, WKMG reports.
King’s hospital roommate told officials at AdventHealth New Smyrna Beach that he spotted King set a small object on fire, but convinced him to extinguish the flame. King then reignited the blaze, prompting his roommate to use an emergency button to call for help, the station reports.

Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden claimed Tuesday night that he could get China to allow U.S. health experts into the country simply by hectoring the country.
“Here’s the deal. I would be on the phone with China and making it clear, ‘We are going to need to be in your country. You have to be open. You have to be clear. We have to know what’s going on. We have to be there with you.’ And insists on it. And insist, insist, insist. I could get that done,” Biden said.
Biden offered no evidence that China would change its policies,

A 19-year-old man has been arrested and charged for attempting to blow up a vehicle in the Pentagon parking lot Monday morning, federal prosecutors announced.
The suspect, 19-year-old Matthew Dmitri Richardson of Arkansas, was allegedly observed striking a cigarette lighter against a piece of fabric placed into the SUV’s fuel tank. After Richardson was approached by a patroling Pentagon Police Officer, the suspect threatened to “blow this vehicle up” and “himself”. Richardson then allegedly fled on foot from the parking lot toward Virginia State Route 110 and onto Virginia State Route 27.
“According to court documents, after a search of Richardson, officers allegedly discovered a cigarette lighter, gloves,

Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, estimates there’s a three-month window to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, which are being threatened by the fast-spreading virus from China.
Pound, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, did not sound alarmist. But he did speak frankly about the risks facing the Olympics, which open July 24.
Pound has been an International Olympic Committee member since 1978, 13 years longer than current President Thomas Bach.
“You could certainly go to two months out if you had to,” Pound said, which would mean putting off a decision until late May and hoping the virus is under control.

Consumer confidence ticked up a few notches in February, suggesting that the economic strength of U.S. households will continue to support growth in the coming months.
The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence rose to 130.7, up from 130.4 in January.
The gain was driven by a rise in the Conference Board’s gauge of expectations for income, business, and labor market conditions. The present situation metric declined from January.
“Consumer confidence improved slightly in February, following an increase in January,” said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators. “Despite the decline in the Present Situation Index, consumers continue to view current conditions quite favorably. Consumers’ short-term expectations improved,

Should white people sing black spirituals?
Western Michigan University is grappling with that question after a black student was triggered and suffered a social media meltdown when a predominantly white choir sang “Wade in the Water.”
“So apparently Western Michigan University thinks it’s ok for WHITE peoples to sing negro spirituals while the instructor talking bout ‘these songs don’t belong to one race.’ They sure as hell DO,” WMU music major Shaylee Faught wrote on a social media now seen by more than 1 million people.
Faught got triggered after the choir’s black conductor reportedly told the audience that the selections were “American songs” performed “for everyone” and “have no ethnicity.”

A seven-month deployment in Afghanistan shrouded in secrecy is a key piece of Pete Buttigieg’s pitch to voters in the 2020 presidential race, with the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor arguing that his status as a veteran and his time in a war zone give him foreign policy gravitas and first-hand military experience none of his Democratic primary rivals can claim.
That supposed strength, however, ultimately could become a weakness in a potential general election match-up with President Trump and a Republican Party that is already eyeing ways to turn Mr. Buttigieg’s time as a Naval intelligence officer into a liability. Some of those who served alongside Mr. Buttigieg in Afghanistan

A number of pundits have recently argued that younger voters, especially those under 30, are less inclined to be bothered when they hear the word “socialism,” since they have no firsthand memory of the Cold War.
To some extent, this must be true. Those who weren’t alive during socialism’s cruelest catastrophes — or even its many banal failures — will be less put off by the idea. Then again, if a presidential candidate were praising the excellent public transportation system of the Third Reich or going on about the some alleged benefit to American slavery, they would rightly be chased from the public square forever

Harvey Weinstein is “in disbelief,” but “not delusional,” about his conviction, as he remains under care at Bellevue Hospital before being transferred to Rikers Island, where he’ll be put behind bars.
“He’s still in disbelief of the charges he was convicted of. He’s very consistent about his innocence,” one of Weinstein’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala, told Variety over the phone late Wednesday night.
Weinstein was convicted Monday on two felony charges: criminal sex act in the first-degree for assaulting Miriam Haley by forcible oral sex in 2006, and rape in the third-degree for raping Jessica Mann in a New York City hotel room in 2013.

A little more than a year ago, the New Jersey Legislature passed, and Gov. Phil Murphy signed, a law mandating the teaching of LGBT subject matter in public school curriculum, beginning in 2020-21.In response to the law, the activist group Garden State Equality has prepared a curriculum, currently piloted in 12 New Jersey schools and planned to be employed statewide in the fall. This is consistent with Murphy’s vision. At Garden State Equality’s 2019 Ball, he said, “I applaud Garden State Equality for not only leading this effort, but for your continued work in helping to craft this curriculum.”

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., appeared to threaten Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, on Friday, warning that they better not be in close quarters or they could have a "serious altercation."
He made those comments on MSNBC while discussing the coronavirus. MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson had asked the congressman about Trump Jr.'s argument that Democrats were hoping for deaths from the coronavirus so it could end his father's winning streak.
"He should not be near me when he says that," Garamendi responded. "There would be a serious altercation. That is just totally outrageous. That is totally outrageous."

The U.S. military is about to experience another first: Barring injury in the next few weeks, an enlisted soldier is about to become the first female Green Beret in Army history. That comes seven years after the Pentagon lifted its longtime ban on women serving in combat roles. As with all special operators, the military does not release names or identification. But the woman is expected to graduate soon from the rugged, roughly year-long qualification course and become a Special Forces engineer sergeant. Another woman is also making her way through the demanding yearlong course. The length of the course depends on the operator’s specialty

Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed diverting billions of dollars of funding for President Trump's border wall to government efforts to respond to the coronavirus.Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced the Prioritizing Pandemic Prevention Act on Thursday to require that approximately $10 billion be redirected from fence projects along the U.S.-Mexico border to the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Agency for International Development to make up for the money Congress will spend preparing for and responding to the virus."The coronavirus outbreak poses serious health,

President Trump was pictured laughing and joking at a White House event as he met with Diamond and Silk, while Vice President Mike Pence chaired the first meeting of the taskforce on how to contain the coronavirus outbreak and the Dow had its biggest point plunge in history. Trump seemed in high spirits and congratulated himself over the 'incredible achievement' of handling the disease, as panic over the deadly coronavirus swept the US.Officials said 33 people had tested positive for the virus in California as of Thursday, one day after the US' first unknown origin case was announced

Chicago Public Schools will no longer observe Columbus Day.
The Board of Education voted to change the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day as other cities and school districts have done. The board’s vote on the issue was 5-2.
The school holiday will be on Oct. 12 this year.
CPS is working to develop new curriculum to more accurately tell the history of Native American cultures.
The holiday has been controversial because the day has been used to commemorate Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who claimed to have discovered America in 1492. The area was already populated by indigenous people and some have argued that Columbus’ actions led to their genocide.

The Democrats’ poster girl for America-hating could swing Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes to President Trump in November. Representative Ilhan Omar now obviously enjoys trolling Republicans, perhaps lulled into complacency by the MSM’s general leftism and Minnesota media’s complicity in suppressing news of her apparent immigration fraud by marrying her brother (Scott Johnson of Powerline deserves a Pulitzer Prize for his role in exposing this major scandal, but won’t get one because the Pulitzer committee reflects the leftist bias of the mainstream journalism community).

Colorado Springs, Colo.—The U.S. Air Force changed lyrics in its service anthem by dropping gender references that exclude women. The change announced Thursday by the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. David Goldfein, is designed to make the service friendlier to women, The Gazette reports. “Our song must reflect our history, the inspiring service and accomplishments of all who’ve served, and the rich diversity that makes today’s Air Force indisputably the strongest and most capable in the world,” Goldfein wrote in a message to airmen, cadets and academy alumni. The change originated when female Air Force Academy cadets asked Goldfein why